Just thought this deserves more attention than only being circulated inside the pro-wrestling bubble, the irony of it being in the "Official WWE thread" is noted.
A few days ago a former WWE female talent, Ashley Massaro, died aged 39. Her death is being reported as an apparent suicide. She had been in relative obscurity over the last few years on the public stage.
Now, despite all I've written about pro-wrestling and why it can be enjoyable a few posts up, there's no denying that especially at the top level of the business an awful lot of shit goes on concerning the treatment of the wrestlers and other talent (managers, commentators, referees, bookers etc.) with a lot of wrestlers whom would have been recognisable faces in the 80's and 90's facing all sort of physical, mental and financial problems with a disturbingly high rate of them dying prematurely. It's a profession where you kind of live for the moment, but also has a high risk of trapping you in a vicious circle. One noted level of talent abuse is the use of having wrestlers in the WWE not be "employers" but "independent contractors", what we'd locally termed as the wrestlers as being self-employed whom are contracted by a business to perform a service. The thing is that even as independent contractors, the WWE wrestlers aren't allowed to work for any other wrestling promotion without their permission (i.e. very rare), have far fewer work protection rights compared to an employee, don't get health insurance etc. reminiscent of a dodgy employer over on this side of the Atlantic having a business with supposed employees but actually gets them to "write up" their work at the end of the week to make it look like they are self-employed instead, allowing the employer to avoid tax and NI/PRSI liabilities for their business - one practice that would get them into a whole world of trouble in Ireland or Britain if caught.
But going on from that, a couple of years ago there was a class-action lawsuit in the USA by a number of former WWE
employees independent contractors suing them for compensation concerning workplace and contract conditions. It kind of fell by the wayside but is otherwise still ongoing, and a few of them filed affidavits - one of them was Ashley Massaro. This was submitted two years ago and reading through it, it's amazing nothing was noted about it even in the niche pro-wrestling media at the time. Only with her death has it now been given a bigger profile and definitely deserves notice in the mainstream because of what she submitted about of during her time in the WWE and beyond it.
I have to say that reading through this affidavit myself was an uncomfortable & disturbing feeling. I'd known about a lot of scummy things that Vince McMahon and the relevant top brass in the WWE have got up to over the years, but this goes on well beyond even that. I've left a link to the affidavit PDF below and also a brief summary below. In general, all I can say is f**k Vince McMahon. I won't be watching any more shows or content produced by the WWE nor actively give a single penny to them at least until Vince McMahon is dragged kicking & screaming away from the company or that the **** dies - and even then only if what happens afterwards demonstrates a better care of the wrestlers and other talent whom work to produce their shows, by treating them as actual employees to begin with.
As I said above, this is not pleasant reading -
https://wweconcussionlawsuitnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Ashley-Massaro-Affidavit-Clean-11.1.pdfSummary* Ms, Massaro gained
employment a contract to work for the WWE as part of a "Diva Search" competition that also won her US$250,000. Vince already tried to screw her over on that by demanding that a portion of those winnings be given to a associate of his.
* Despite having no prior wrestling experience she was thrown into her first bout only a week after winning the Diva Search competition, on live television with millions watching. Ashley didn't protest about this even while being on the road for 4-5 days per week.
* Ashley did actually want to gain some proper pro-wrestling training and asked if she could be sent to their (at the time) farm promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling to learn - she was told no as this meant taking her off the WWE screens for several months. She then decided to try and get some training on her days off but when Stephanie McMahon (Vince's daughter) learned of this so was ordered to stop on the grounds that the gym she was attending was not properly certified by the WWE. So Ashley was not only not trained to do pro-wrestling bouts, she was actively being told not to train for them! Safe to say that someone untrained like her whom was only learning in a "live" setting was a hazard to her and those she worked with.
* Her lack of training meant she often didn't know how to take bumps properly, and was exposed to other wrestlers working stiff, leading her to pick up numerous injuries including concussions and fractures - in one case having a plaster on her arm being sawed off back stage on Vince McMahon's orders two weeks earlier than medically advised.
* IMO the most awful piece concerns Ashley being part of a five-person team with the WWE travelling to USA armed forces bases in Afghanistan, Kuwait & Saudi Arabia for a tour. Whilst in Kuwait she ended up being raped by what is presumed to have been an active service member of the forces on the base whilst having been drugged prior to the incident making her heavily sedated yet still aware of what was happening around her including the physical pain from penetration. There was no attempt to administer a rape kit on Ms. Massaro, and when leaving Saudi Arabia to return back to the USA via London there was a "ticket problem" which meant she couldn't board the flight. Despite the other four members of the team (including a fellow "Diva") knowing what had happened to her in Kuwait, she was left behind at Riyadh Airport on her own potentially having to stay overnight in the city (She was given a burka to wear during the tour but had already returned this back to the USA armed forces before going to the airport). Thankfully for her she had a friend back home whom was a travel agent that managed to get her out of the country a few hours later.
* Arriving back in the USA, Ashley was asked to come to a meeting with Vince McMahon and several WWE lawyers. Vince basically told her to not go public about what happened lest the relationship between the WWE and the USA armed forces was damaged, describing her experience in the Middle East as "one bad experience". No need for further comment on the meeting after that quote.
* Onwards from this, she speaks about how years later she was not aware of what her "independent contractor" status meant, how they had to travel long distances sometimes in their ring gear because of time pressures, how she was not properly told of her contract rights, and how her injuries and other incidents (including the rape mentioned above) were never notified to OSHA concerning workplace health & safety. There was also no information provided to her concerning the risks of TBI and CTE whilst performing.
* Finally she mentions about the medical care she has required since her WWE contract was terminated, including surgery, one of which she's had to put off because of the ability to pay for it and two others where she had to rely on Medicaid in her home state (New York) to help over the costs. The WWE contributed nothing towards these surgeries, and she spoke of how the WWE would tell her and other wrestlers to use drugs to perform whilst injured and which predictably ended up with her getting addicted that she thankfully overcame. She also lists her ongoing problems with depression, migraines and short term memory loss that she attributes to working in the WWE.
Once again, f**k Vince McMahon - even for just describing being drugged & raped as being "one bad incident". Daughter Stephanie doesn't exactly come out of this smelling of roses either.
